[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         UNITED STATES VULNERABLE TO BALLISTIC MISSILE ATTACKS

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, it is the official policy of the United 
States to remain vulnerable to a ballistic missile attack. That might 
be surprising to many, but it is true, even though it flies in the face 
of common sense. Iraq, North Korea, Iran are all embarked on nuclear 
weapons programs that would enable them to reach the United States with 
a ballistic missile, and China already has that ability.
  Mr. Speaker, the only thing we have to protect us is a relic of the 
Cold War, an ABM treaty with a country that no longer even exists.
  Do my colleagues think the leaders of Iraq and North Korea and Iran 
and Communist China are impressed with our ABM treaty? I do not think 
so.
  Mr. Speaker, the administration's timid, weak and uncertain steps to 
begin building a national defense system are not enough. They are too 
little, and I am afraid they are going to be too late.
  I urge the Congress to take the lead on this vital issue, Mr. 
Speaker, and as my liberal colleagues so often love to say:
  Let us do it for the children.

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